


Clown Mom and Son boy

by Ceciliavonjoy



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Crossover, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Family Bonding, Family Fluff, Fluff, Gen, More Mom Content, Parent-Child Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-19
Updated: 2021-01-19
Packaged: 2021-03-17 06:09:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28844364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ceciliavonjoy/pseuds/Ceciliavonjoy
Summary: One of them is an emotional clown woman with a license in psychiatry. The other is a deeply traumatized, prickly hedgehog alien. Together they are......mother and son.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 14





	Clown Mom and Son boy

**Author's Note:**

> Shadow lost his memory (of course), but is slowly getting them back via painful headaches that give him memory flashes. They're not all that pleasant.
> 
> I swear I have backstory for this au, but right now my eyeballs feel like they're vibrating so that is a later thing
> 
> And YES this was a(nother) excuse to make crossover mom content with Shadow the hedgehog. I don't have to explain myself to anyone. God himself could not stop me.

“Sweetie?” Harley Quinn lifted one of her ratty couch’s throw pillows. It was too small to hide anyone under, but she had to be sure. She’d only gotten home a few minutes ago. “Where are you?”

She got down on her knees to check under the couch. She was pretty sure that he hadn’t gone out; the front door was still locked when she got home.

That, and she knew by now how he functioned. Shadow had a lot of trouble expressing emotion. He internalized things. Multiple times he had chosen to hide and nurse his own pain alone (sometimes literally, with his headaches) rather than let her know that he was struggling.

In theory, with time and with patience, he would emerge on his own. Harley, very worried and tearing apart her living room, was not currently capable of patience.

Now she marched into her bedroom, leaving the living room behind her in more disarray than it had started with. Her room was equally messy, even though half of her things were still in boxes. “Darn it, where is he?” She said to no one in particular. “He’d been doing so well lately, too…”

She heard a noise. Harley stopped, managing not to make any sound for a moment. She glanced around the room, trying to figure out where it came from.

There it was again. A soft shuffling, from under the middle of her bed.

She dropped to the floor, so low that her cheek squished against the carpet.

There he was. A little black and red ball between some of her boxes of stuff, curled up so tight she couldn’t see anything but the big red stripe on his head and his ears. He was so small and his little ears were drooping and sad…. She wanted to dive in, drag him out, and hug the shit out of him.

Okay, probably shouldn’t do that. She took a deep breath. Stay calm, Harleen. Don’t come on too strong. Use that big smart talky psychiatrist brain you have.

“Sweetie?” She said gently. “I can see you. What’s wrong?”

He didn’t move. Harley waited, as hard as that was.

Then slowly the stripe moved backwards, and Shadow’s eyes came into view. The whites of his eyes glowed just slightly, making them very visible in the darkness underneath. In her opinion, he was trying too hard to keep whatever he was feeling from showing on his face.

“Nothing,” he said quietly.

“Nothin’? Well…okay.” Arguing just made him defensive. “Come on out from under the bed, though? It’s almost dinner time. Help me make mac n’ cheese.”

Shadow glanced down, thinking. He did like macaroni and cheese.  
“Hm.” He uncurled some more, pushing out his limbs and jostling the boxes next to him; it was an awkward motion in such a small space. “Alright.”

Harley lifted her head off the floor and scooched back to give him room. It took Shadow some ungraceful army-crawling and squirming to get his head to pop out from under the bed. She offered him a hand to stand up and he ignored it, getting up on his own.

“I’ll get the pot and the water,” Harley said, “if you set the table.”

Shadow nodded, and trailed after her into the kitchen.  
So Harley got the mac n cheese box and the pot and the water in the pot. Shadow helped, obeying whenever she asked for something without any enthusiasm. Not that he was normally enthusiastic about chores, but the lack thereof was usually active, scowling, you-can’t-make-me rebellion.

Shadow trudged across the kitchen to her side. He handed her a requested big spoon without so much as looking up.

“Thanks, sweetie.” With the un-spooned hand, Harley ruffled the bristly fur on his head.

He let her do it in silence.

She lifted her hand and uneasily returned to the stove. He usually hates that.

Oh, she really REALLY wanted to just smother him in cuddles and make him stop being so gloomy and quiet, but that wouldn’t actually help. She would know, she’s tried. Gotta be patient. He has to initiate the conversation.

She sprinkled some salt into the water to make it boil faster. “So. It’s gonna take a bit for the water to boil.” Just a little. A pinch. A teaspoon. Half the shaker.

Shadow hadn’t moved away, and didn’t now. His quills brushed against her leg. “I can’t see it from down here,” he said.

“Well…no?” What did that mean? Did he want to be picked up? She LOVED holding him. He, less so. “You want up?”

Shadow, staring at the floor, bobbed his head in a tiny nod.  
Her psychiatrist brain and her holding-cute-things brain, for once, were in perfect agreement. He’s seeking comfort. It’s good that he feels secure enough to do that.

Harley knelt, and scooped him up, supporting him under his legs with one arm, like she would a baby. Shadow cooperated, leaning against her with his head over one of her shoulders.

She stood up, bouncing him once to adjust him. He still couldn’t see the pot, but she suspected that wasn’t really the point.

Okay. She’s gotten him here. Harley decided to chance it.  
“How’re you doin’?”

It was a moment before Shadow tried to answer. “I’m…” He paused. “I don’t know.”

She pat him on the back. “That’s okay.” It was a step. Getting away from complete denial of his negative feelings, which was good.

Still, it means more waiting. That wasn’t too out of the ordinary for him.

She passed the time walking around the kitchen and straightening up some of the ever-present mess on the counter, occasionally adjusting Shadow on her arm. It wasn’t too long; the water boiled shockingly fast for a crappy apartment stove (the small mound of salt at the bottom of the pot might’ve helped).

Harley hummed while stirring the boiling noodles. It wasn’t any tune in particular. She just didn’t like the quiet.

Shadow took a breath. “Doctor…I remembered more about that girl.” He said quietly. “Maria.”

Oh. That kid he saw get shot. She held him a little tighter. “Yeah?”

“She was… We were friends.” He paused. “Last night I received a memory of her and I reading together. This morning I saw us playing hide and seek.”

Harley thought about this for a moment. He hadn’t had any idea who she was, just that her name was Maria and she had been shot. Unfortunate, and _probably_ disturbing (Harley herself was blasé about violence at this point), but nothing personal. Now that was changing.

“How does that make you feel?” she asked.

“It hurts. She felt…important.” He sounded like he was having trouble talking. “They were…happy memories. I should be happy. I don’t…know why I…”

He trailed off, and didn’t finish the sentence.

Harley set down the stirring spoon on the counter, and pat him on his prickly back. “I think you’re sad _because_ now you know she was your friend.” She said. “Like, you’re discovering that you and her both had some good times together. But you’re also aware that she died sometime after that. So it’s like now you know that you’ve lost something, you know?”

Shadow’s voice broke. “Oh.”

He buried his face into her shoulder. Harley abandoned the spoon and wrapped her arms around him.

The only sounds in the kitchen were the bubbling of the boiling water, and Shadow’s quiet, muffled attempts not to cry.

Harley teared up. Broke her heart, every time. “It’s okay, hun,” she said, gently rocking him back and forth. “Cryin’ helps. Honest it does.” She turned in place; if she couldn’t do anything else she at least wanted to be moving. “Balances your brain chemistry and stuff. It’s healthy.”

He made a noise into her shoulder. “Mnh…”

Harley stopped turning in place, her back to the stove. “I know, it’s not fun. I know. I’m sorry. But I’m proud of you!” Harley snuggled him. “You’re doing it. Meeting your memories and your feelings head-on. Doing the not-fun thing.”

She could hear and feel him breathe in, the lungs in his little body pushing out against her embrace.

“…I miss her.” His voice was almost steady. He paused before speaking again. “It shouldn’t hurt this much.”

It’s working! He’s talking! Harley contained her excitement, and asked, “Why do you say that?”

“I should be stronger.”

“Strong?” Harley played dumb for a moment. “You can lift a bus over your head. You’re plenty strong.”

“Not…that.”

She waited for him to elaborate. It took a few minutes for him to speak again.

“I hate that new memories can…do this to me.” He said slowly. “Knock me down.”

“Yeah?”

“I am the ultimate lifeform.” He spoke ruefully. “And I end up hurt by something as intangible as my own memories.”

Oof, the implications there. If that was a big part of his thinking… “Well, heck, anybody would be rattled by a vision of somebody dyin’ popping into their heads. An’ if they aren’t,” she added, “all they are is wayyy too used to seein’ people die. That’s not a strength, that just means they’re fucked up. They’re prolly the ones causing all that death in the first place.”

She had drifted to an unpleasant subject. Harley hurriedly corrected herself. “Er, but, that ain’t the point, that ain’t the point. You’re not like that. Make sense?”

“You are trying to say that I am not…” Shadow paused, and tentatively shaped his mouth around the unfamiliar phrase. “‘Fucked up’.”

“Yeah!” His formal little voice saying swears would be funny if they weren’t having a serious feelings discussion right now. Actually, no, it was still funny. “Could be a lot worse. You’re capable of feeling! That’s more than a lotta crooks in this city can claim.”

“Hm.”

“And, you know, _I_ cry all the time,” Harley said matter-of-factly. “Just 'cause stuff happens and I’m emotional. Maybe I do cry more than other people. I don’t really care! It helps me be peppy the rest of the time. It ain’t me being weak, it’s just…you know, feeling.”

She softened her voice. “You’re doing great, honey.”

He was still and quiet for a moment. His breathing wasn’t hitching anymore.

Then Shadow leaned back, pulling himself away from her shoulder. Harley adjusted her arms to keep holding him up, smiling at him. He looked tired, but calm, his eyes dry.

“…Thank you.”

“No problem, sweetie.” Aw, she’d probably have to stop holding him now. “Eh…do ya want down?”

He glanced aside, thinking.

Then he nestled back into her, re-resting his head on her shoulder. “In a moment.”

Harley could have cried again, she was so fucking happy. Her baby trusted her enough to talk to her! And to hold him! She was bouncing. She loved him so much!!

Shadow choked. “Y-You’re crushing me…!”

“Sorry!” She hastily loosened her grip. “Sorry, sorry…are you okay?”

“Y…Yes.”

He caught his breath.

“Doctor?”

Shadow sounded like himself again. Phew. Harley felt a lot better. Everything was okay now. “Yeah, hun?”

“The noodles are drying out.”

“What?” Shit, that’s right, she had been making mac n cheese! “OH, FUCK!”


End file.
